Financial reforms : What should the next government do?

Think India Foundation is setting up a series of TV shows on various aspects of public policy. Percy Mistry, Rashesh Shah, Dhiraj Nayyar and I were on their Financial Policy show, which was shot in English and Hinglish. I was impressed at the quality of the show; I had not thought this possible on television. And, my new ambition is to speak in Hindi like Dhiraj does.

It will air on the coming weekend (22 and 23 March, Saturday and Sunday), as follows:

CNN IBN
Sat – 12pm & 8pm
Sun – 10pm

IBN 7
Sat – 10am & 8pm
Sun – 11am & 6pm

CNBC AWAAZ
Sat – 7:30pm
Sun -1pm

CNBC-TV18
Sat – 8:30pm
Sun – 8pm

ETV UP, ETV MP and ETV Bihar
Sat – 6pm
Sun – 5pm

ETV Rajasthan and ETV Urdu
Sat – 5pm
Sun – 5pm

CBI preliminary enquiry on MCX-SX becoming a stock exchange

• CBI doesn't seem to know the SEBI order signed by K. M. Abraham on 6 September 2010 which rejected the application by MCX-SX to become a stock exchange. This roadblock was removed through a Bombay High Court decision by Justice Chandrachud on 16 September 2011 followed by something which happened at the Supreme Court on 11 April 2012.
• An interview with C. B. Bhave.
• N. Sundaresha Subramaniam in Business Standard tells us more about the 2008 event.
• See this story by Shaji Vikraman in the Economic Times today.
• Commentary by Dhiraj Nayyar and R. Jagannathan. 
• Raghuvir Srinivasan in the Hindu.
• Mobis Philipose in Mint.

This is a good time to ruminate on the notion that CBI or Lok Pal should have independence. Underdevelopment is where the police are more dangerous than the criminals. Coercive power coupled with independence is a recipe for trouble. What is needed is far more thinking on how to do sound public administration, on the right mix of independence and accountability. Anger about corruption is not a useful source of good thinking in public policy.

This is also a good time to ruminate on the lack of rule of law in the determination of fit & proper.

Human capital will fuel high Indian GDP growth for the coming 40 years

In a recent column in the Economic Times -- My generation -- I argue that the outlook on human capital in India is bountiful for the coming 40 years.

12th research meeting of the NIPFP-DEA Research Program (correction)

The 12th Research Meeting of the NIPFP-DEA Research Program will take place at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi on 13 and 14 March.

The program design is up on the website.

The previous post which stated this had a mistake on the URL. Please ignore it.

Food inflation: macro and micro perspectives

On 25 February, we have a one-day meeting on this subject. All are welcome.

Inflation targeting is the new gold standard

I have a column in the Economic Times today of this title.

The Bombay police: A failure story

A few days ago, I woke up at 4 AM under an onslaught of the shouting of large beefy men instructing a crew, using megaphones, in a movie shoot in Film City. I thought to myself "this must violate some law".

For a while, I tried to be a free rider, thinking "Someone else will complain". But it was 4 AM and clearly nobody had complained. So I thought I should call the police and complain.

1. I used my (Airtel) cell phone and dialled "100". The cell phone said this was an imaginary number. I rotated the phone by 90 degrees but this also did not work.
2. I tried to dial "022-100" but this gave the same error.
3. Some websites said that 112 is an omnibus emergency number. I tried 112 and 022-112. Neither worked.
4. I broke into cold sweat thinking that in Bombay, I actually have no means to call the police in an emergency using my cell phone.
5. I hunted for other ways to reach the police. There is no rapid access mechanism using new technology: You cannot send in a complaint by email or IM. You can chat with an Amazon customer support person by IM or on email, but you can't do this with the Bombay police.
6. I started hunting for a phone number for the police on the web. There were large numbers of websites. It was not clear which to use.
7. If you google for "Mumbai police" and click on the first link -- http://www.mumbaipolice.org -- it takes you to a fashion store.
8. I hunted more on the web and got hold of a few numbers and started trying. The first two shooed me away.
9. The third one was willing to listen to me, but not in English. The only languages that he would speak were Hindi and Marathi. I happen to know some Hindi and some Marathi, but a large number of migrants to Bombay speak neither. It is not good to have government interface that does not grok the lingua franca of India.
10. He heard me and said "okay". He did not say "This is illegal and we will shut it down". 
11. He did not give me a ticket number. He made no attempt to take my phone number or email address. Nobody contacted me in the end to tell me what was the disposition of my complaint. I had no idea what happened. The noise blared on.

And I understood why free riding did not work. Nobody had complained because there is no mechanism through which anyone can complain.

There is no public good as fundamental as the criminal justice system, and we in India are simply not trying hard enough.